Music-leaf turner.



C. C. VAUGHAN.

MUSIC vLEAF TURNER. APPLICATION F1LEDJUNE30,19H.

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C. C. VAUGHAN. MUSIC LEAF TURNER. `APPLICATION FILED JUNE 30. |917.

Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2..

@inventan amaca C. C. VAUGHAN.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 30. I9I7 Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

@IM/vago@ CALVIN C. VAUGHAN, 0F ONAWAY, MICHIGAN.

MUSIC-LEAF TURNER.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 1, 1918.

Application filed .Tune 3G, 1917. Serial No. 177,915.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, CALVIN C. VAUGHAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Onaway, in the county of Presque Isle and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Music- Leaf Turners, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to devices for turning music leaves, and particularly to that class of devices wherein leaf turning arms are provided which are adapted to be actuated by the operation of an actuating lever.

One of the general objects of this invention is to provide a very simple, easily operated and effective device of this character requiring but a slight actuation of the actuating lever in order to shift the leaf turning arms from one position to the other, and provide means whereby all of the leaf turning arms may be shifted simultaneously to their initial positions, if it `be desired to repeat a piece of music.

A further object is to provide ay device of this character wherein the leaf turning arms are adapted to be vertically shifted so that the clips carried by the arms may be readily engaged with or disengaged from the sheets of music.

A further object is to provide very simple means for oscillating these arms.

Still another object is to provide means for holding leaves not in use flat against the music support.

Still another object is to provide adjustable means for holding the music leaf turner and the music support upon a piano or other instrument.

And another object is to provide means whereby the music leaf turning mechanism may be vertically adjusted so as to iit it for music leaves of a greater or less height.

Other objects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a front elevation of a music leaf turner constructed in accordance with my invention, the parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view, the standards 11 and the casing 32 being broken away;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the arm operating mechanism, the pawls 42 being shown mounted on top of the racks so as to show clearly the operation of the mechanism;

Figs. 4 and 5 are fragmentary top plan views of one of the racks and its corresponding pawl and of the shifting device, the figures showing the pawl 43 respectively retracted and projected.

Fig. 6 is a top plan View of the music leaf turner;

Fig. 7 is a top plan view of the base partly broken away;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary side elevation of a portion of one of the standards showing the latch.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates the base of the device and 11 uprights extending therefrom. Attached to the uprights 11, adjacent the base, is a transversely extending board, or other suitable wall 12, for the purpose of supporting the lower portion of the music sheet. Attached to the uprights, at the rear thereof, and extending vertically upward, are the guide rods 13, these rods being attached at their upper and lower ends to the vertical supports and extending laterally and forward so that the vertical portions of the guide rods are disposed in the same plane as the outer face of the uprights 11.

Attached to the upper ends of the uprights are bent strips 14, preferably of pliable metal, and designed to engage with a piano, so as to hold the device firmly upon the music supporting shelf of the piano. l These strips 14 are preferably longitudinally slotted as at 15 and bolts, with winged nuts, pass through these slots and into the uprights 11, so that the strips 14 may be vertically adjusted.

The actuating mechanism for the music turner comprises a sector gear 16, which is pivotally mounted within a recess 17 in the base 10. This sector gear is provided with two outwardly projectlng arms 18, which are extended divergently to one another and preferably downwardly deflected. These arms provide means whereby the sector gear 16 may be turned. A spring 19 holds the sector gear in a median position and, as illustrated, this spring 19 is coiled at its middle to surround the pivot pin of the sector gear, and laterally extended at each end to form arms 20. Pins 21 projecting upward from the sector gear engage the ends of these arms when the sector gear is rotated. Guides 22 are provided through which the arms Y20 project. It will be obvious now that the sector gear 16 may be turned in either direction and that when so turned, one or the other of the pins 21 will strike the correspondingV arm 2O of the spring and the sector gear willbe rotated against the force of this arm of the spring, the opposite arm of thespring being held from movement by the corresponding member 22.

The sector gear 16 meshes with a gear wheel 23 mounted upon a vertically extendingshaft 24. This shaft at its lower end is suitably mounted in the base 10 and at its upper end is rotatably mounted upon a bracket 25 extending from one of the uprights 11. This shaft 24 at its iniddleis cranked as at 26, this crank normally extending toward the front of the machine. Open' ativelv connected to the crank is a connectf ing rod 27. l f

Mounted upon the face of the uprights 11 is a vertically adjustable transversely extending supporting member 2S, which entends at each end beyond the uprights and is operatively connectedto the rods 13 for vertical adjustment. Preferably this member has portions 23u which are bent around the rods 13. One of the rods 13 is provided with teeth 29 or, in other words, is notched, and pivotally mounted upon one end of the member 28 is a latch 30 having a detent end, a spring 31 acting to force the detent end of the latch into the notches. rlhe opposite end of the latch is formed with a handle which projects out into convenient position foroperation to retract the latch and thereby permit the adjustment of the supporting member 28. v

Mounted upon the supporting member 8 is a vca'sii'ig 32 and attached to the rear wall 33 of thisV casing at one endof the casing is a bracket 34 having a plurality of pairs of ears 35, there being one pair of cars for each music sheet turning arm. Rotatably mountedbetween each pair of ears is a sectorgear 36 having a projecting arm 37 and extending upward from each arm is a verticalsupporting member 38, and operatively connected to the upper end of this member 38 is a leaf turning arm 39 carrying at its end the spring clip 40 of any ordinary or suitable construction. Preferably each arm 39 is hingedly connected to the supporting member 38, so that the arm may be raised or swung upward, but when released will be disposed in an approximately horizontal position.

. For the purpose of rotating the several sectorv gears 36, l provide a plurality of racks 41, each toothed at one end to engage with a sector gear 36, each of the racks being disposed betwecna pair of ears 35. Each are slightly angular in form, as illustrated clearly" in ]i`igs.4l and 5. Extending from the forward end of each rack 41 is a rod 44 which 'passes through a guide perforation 45 ina Ametallic strip 45"L which is attached to and projects outward from the back 33. The

lowest rack of the series of racks does not carry a latch member 42, but is formed with an outwardly projecting detent lug 42a.

Mounted adjacent the rear wall 33 and .extending longitudinally of ythe casing are the guide rods1 46 and slidably mounted upon these guide rods is a member 47, which has a rearwardly extending vertically disposed bead48 and which is provided upon'its face with a vertically extending flange 49, which is hook-shaped in cross section and extends in a direction away from the sector gears 36. Thisiiange isY adapted Ato lengage with the lugs 43 and with the detent lug 42u. The lowermost rack 41is supported. by means of the bracket 45@ on which the raclrslides and the racksare each provided with a lug member 51 engaging thecorres'ponding rod 46. The connectii'ig rod 2T which extends from the crank 2,6atits end is angularly bent and disposed in the Y,bead 48 and thus it will be 95 seen that as the crank shaft 24 is rotated, the slide 47 will be reciprocated.

Disposed oneach ofthe racks 41 is a resilient finger 52, which extends upward and across the rack just above, this resilient tinger of onejrack bearing upon the latch 42 of the rack above. VTherefore, itwill be seen that as1 one rack moves longitudinally inthe direction .ofthej arrow iii Fig. 4, its finger 52 will shift along the slightly angular 'latch 42 and from a position, where this finger bears yagainst the rear end of thelatcli 42, as'in Fig. 4, it will yshift toa position where it bears against the forward en d of the latch 42, as in Fig. 5 and will shift the forward end of the latch inward, thus projecting the detentend 43 into the path of movement of the catch formed by theflange 49. Swingingly -attach'edto the top of the casing 32 are springs 53 and 54, these springs hav ing angularly bent terminals 55 and these springs, with their terminalends 55, are adapted to be swung to the dotted line position in .Fig 6, engaged with those sheets of music which arenot intended to be used, so as to hold the music'sheetslspread out flat against the supporting'member 28.

The operation of the mechanism heretoforedescribcd is as follows: Assuming that the leaf turning arms 39 are Vall disposed toward the upright 11 on the'righthand side of Fig. 1, then upon a movement of the sector gear 16 Vvin, the directionv of the arrow, Fg- 7, `theshaft 24will be rotatedin a counterclockwise direction and the slide 47 will be shifted toward the right. The several fingers 52 of the several racks Will, in this position of the parts, be disposed each over the rear end of the latch 42 of the rack justabove and, as a consequence, the detent lugs of these latches will all be urged outward and out of the path of movement of the flange or catch 49. N ow as the slide 47 moves toward the right, the catch 49 will engage with the detent lug-42a and, as a consequence, the lowermost rack will be shifted toward the right (the position shown in Fig. 3) and its rack teeth will rotate the lowermost sector gear36 in a clockwise direction, shifting the corresponding arm 39 over toward the lefthand upright and, of course, turning the music with the music sheet to which the arm is connected. The slide moves rearward when the lever 18 of the gear 16 is released so that the catch 49 is again in a position to engage the nextV detent lug. The forward movement of the lowest rack has carried its finger into a position to force the detent end 43 of the rack next above into the path of movement of the catch 49, so that upon the next actuation of the sector gear 16, the second rack will be shifted toward the right carrying the second arm 39 around. The movement of the second rack 41 carries its finger 52 into a position to force the detent end of the latch 42 of the next above rack into position to be engaged by the catch 49 upon the next movement of the slide 47 and this occurs successively with the entire series of racks, so that upon each rotation of the gear wheel 16 in a clockwise direction, one of the leaf turning arms will be swung over.

Now upon a rotation of the sector gear 16 in a counterclockwise direction, the shaft 24 will be rotated to shift the connecting rod 27 toward the left in Fig. 1, thus carrying the slide 47 to the lefthand. This slide engages with tlie several members 51 on the several racks and, of course, shifts all of the racks to the left in Fig. 1, swinging the music turning arms 39 over to their initial positions.

It will, of course, be understood that the mechanism may be provided with any number of music turning arms depending upon the capacity of the mechanism and that there will be a like number of racks, one for each of these music turning arms.

The crank portion 26 is relatively long and this permits the member 28 to be shifted up and down upon guide rods 13 so as to support the-music turning arms in a position to engage the upper edges of the music leaves, no matter whether the leaves be relatively long or short. Of course it is obvious that the music will have to be disposed so that the middle of the music is in line with the axis of rotation'of the arms 39 and lto that end, I preferably provide the supporting member 12 with a notch 54a and provide the member 28 with an indicating mark so asy to indicate where the music is to be disposed.

While I have illustrated a form of my invention that I believe to be thoroughly effective, yet it is obvious that many changes might be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In Fig. 1, it will be noticed that the latches 42 are disposed upon the under sides of the several racks 41. In Fig. 3, however, I have shown these latches 42 as disposed upon the upper faces of the racks, so as to make the operation of these latches clearer as otherwise the latches would be obscured by the racks. This necessitates in Fig. 3 the finger 52 belonging to the second rack 41 being attached to the rear edge of the rack 41 .and offset outward instead of being attached to the forward edge of the rack, as is the finger 52 for the lowermost rack. The operation, however, is not changed in any way, but the showing in Fig. 3 is simply made so as to clearly illustrate the operation of the several racks and latches. While I have illustrated only three racks and three sets of arms 39, it is to be understood that in the actual construction there will be a greater number of racks and a greater number of arms and that I am not to be limited to the number of arms 39 and actuating devices therefor.

It will be seen from Fig. 6 that the resilient arms 53 extend across each other when the parts are in the position shown in full lines in Fig. 6 and are formed at their ends with pins 54a engaging in brackets 56. This permits the music holding arms 53 and 54 to be shifted either into the position shown in full lines in Fig. 6 or to the dotted line position.

Having described my invention what I Vclaim is 1. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, a single manually actuatable member manually shiftable in opposite directions, and means operatively connecting the member with the arms for causing a swinging movement successively of the said arms upon successive manual actuations of the member in one direction and causing a simultaneous swinging of the arms in the opposite direction upon av single actuation of said member in a reverse direction to that in which it was first moved.

2. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, means for actuating said arms comprising a manually actuatable sector gear shiftable in opposite directions, a crank shaft having a gear wheel engaged by said last named sector gear, means operatively connected to the crank shaft acting in suecessively swing the leaf engaging arms in one direction upon successive oscillations of the crank shaft, and means whereby a rotaltion of the crank shaft in the opposite direction will cause a simultaneous retraction of all of said arms to their initial positions.

3. A music leaf turner including a plurality of y swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each provided with a sector gear at its pivotal end, a plurality of longitudinally shiftable racks', each engaging one of said sector gears, and manually operable means for shifting said racks in either direction, said means including a member successively engaging with said racks upon successive actuations of the manually operable means in one direction and engaging` all of said racks to swing the arms to an initial position upon a shifting of the manually actuatable means in the reverse direction.

t. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each provided with a sector gear connected to its pivotal end, a plurality of longitudinally shiftable racks, each engaging with one of said sector gears and each provided with a detent tooth, a slide mounted for longitudinal movement adjacent said racks, manually operable means for shifting the slide in either direction from a neutral -position, means causing said slide to successively engage said racks for movement in one direction when the slide is shifted in this direction by said manually actuatable means, said slide operatively engaging all of the racks simultaneously upon a movement of the slide from its neutral position in the opposite direction to thereby cause a simultaneous return of all of said leaf engaging arms to an initial position.

5. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each having a sector gear at its pivotal end, a plurality of racks, one for each arm engaging the sector gears, one of said racks being provided with a fixed detent tooth, each of the other racks being provided with a pivoted latch having` a detent tooth, a longitudinally movable slide moving parallel to the racks having a catch thereon engageable with all of said detent teeth, means for swinging the pivotal latches successively into position to be engaged by the slide by the longitudinal movement of a next adjacent rack, and manually operable means for shifting` said slide in opposite directions, all of said racks being provided with a lug engaged by the slide upon a movement of the slide from a neutral position in the opposite direction.

6. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each arm being provided with a sector gear, a plurality of longitudinally movable racks engaging said sector gears, the racks being arranged in superimposed relation, the

lowermost Arack carrying an inwardly lprojecting fixed detent tooth, `pivotedangular latches mounted upon each of the other racks and each latch having a detent tooth, fingers carried by each rack vextending upward and engaging over the edge of the latch above and movable along'the said latch to thereby cause the projection or retraction of the detent end of the latch, a/lug on each rack, a longitudinally movable slide mounted 'behind the racks and having a catchengageable with any projected Vdetent tooth upon a movement of the slide in ione direction from a neutral position,fsaid slideengaging the lugs on the racks upon a movement of the slide from a neutral position in the otherdirection, andmanually operable means for reciprocating the slide.

7. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each arm being provided with a sector gear, a plurality of longitudinally movable racks engaging said sector gears, the racks being arranged in superimposedrelation, the lowermost rack carrying an inwardly projecting fixed detent tooth, pivoted angular latches mounted upon each `of the other racks and each latch having a detent tooth, fingers carried by each rack extending upward and engaging over the edge of the latch above and movable along the said latch to thereby cause the projection or retraction of the detent end of the latch, a lug on each rack, a longitudinally movable slide mounted behind the racks and having a catch engageablewith any projected detent tooth upon a movement of the slide in one direction from a neutral position, said slide engaging the lugs on the racks upon a movement of the slide from a neutral position in the other direction, avertically disposed cranked shaft, a 'connecting rod between the cranked portion of the shaft and said slide, and manually operable means shiftable in opposite directions for rotating said shaft.

8. .A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms, each arm being provided with a'sector gear, a plurality of longitudinally movable racksengaging said sector gears, the racks being arranged in superimposed relation, the lowermost rack carrying an inwardly projecting fixed detent tooth, pivoted angular latches mounted upon each of the other racks and each latch having a detent tooth, fingers carried by each rack extendingfupward and engaging over the edge of the latch above and movable along the said latch to thereby cause the projection or retraction of the detent end of the latch, a lug on each rack, a longitudinally movable slide mounted behind the racks and having a catch engageable with any projected detent tooth upon a movement of the slide in one direction from a neutral position, said slide engaging the lugs on the racks upon a movement of the slide from a neutral position in the other direction, a vertically disposed cranked shaft, a connecting rod between the cranked portion of the shaft and said slide, a manually oscillatable sector gear, a gear Wheel on the cranked shaft meshing with said sector gear, and springs holding the sector gear in a neutral position.

9. A music leaf turner including a plurality of swingingly mounted leaf engaging arms each having a sector gear at its pivotal end, a plurality of racks, one for each arm and engaging the sector gears, members shiftably mounted upon said racks, a longitudinally movable slide moving parallel to the racks and operatively engageable with said members when the members are shifted to a predetermined position, manually operable means for shifting said slide, and means on each one of the racks acting to shift the member on the next adjacent rack into operative position to be engaged by said slide when the first named rack has been shifted to swing the corresponding leaf engaging arm to the extent of its movement in one direction.

l0. A music leaf turner including a supporting structure, a vertically adjustable transversely extending member mounted upon the supporting structure, music leaf turning devices operatively supported upon the member and including a reciprocatable slide, a vertically disposed crank shaft mounted upon the supporting structure and having a relatively long cranked portion, a connecting rod operating on said cranked portion and having its opposite end connected to the slide, and manually operable means on the supporting structure for shifting said crank shaft in opposite directions.

ll. A music leaf turner including a supporting structure, a vertical operating shaft mounted upon the supporting structure, means for oscillating said shaft, a transversely extending member mounted upon the supporting structure and vertically adjustable With relation to the supporting structure and said shaft, music leaf turning devices operatively mounted upon said transversely extending member, and means for operatively connecting the music leaf turning devices to the operating shaft including a member engaged by said shaft for rotative movement therewith but vertically adjustable upon the shaft With the adjustment of the transversely extending member. v

l2. A music leaf turner including a supporting structure, a vertically adjustable transversely extending member mounted upon the supporting structure, music leaf turning devices operatively supported upon said member and including a plurality of racks, a slide successively engaging the several racks, a connecting rod pivotally connected to the slide at one end, a vertically disposed crank shaft mounted upon the supporting structure and having a relatively long cranked portion with Which the connecting rod has sliding engagement, and manually operable means on the supporting structure for shifting said crank shaft in 0pposite directions.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

CALVIN C. VAUGHAN. Witnesses:

ROBERT F. BRUCE, GUY MAXFIELD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing1 the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, ID. C. 

